A glimpse of the other side
by Black Quill Stories
Summary: Elena Stevenson is enjoying her after-work drink at the local pub she works, when four rather strange figures show up and ask for a "butterbeer". This peaks an interest, but she doesn't realize that she is in for much more surprises. One-shot. R.L & J.P & P.P & S.B & OC


Elena Stevenson is enjoying her after-work drink at the local pub she works, when four rather strange figures show up and ask for a "butterbeer". Her interest is peaked and an intriguing conversation follows.

Elena let herself fall onto one of the bar chairs with a deep sigh. The pub was almost deserted, apart from a local customer, who was sitting in the back with a big pint of beer and a stack of daily newspapers.

"Beer?" Jonathan, her co-worker asked, while already drawing her a large glass from the beer tap.

"Great, thanks," she said as soon as he put the drink in front of her. She took a big gulp and let the beer fill her with the cold, bitter sensation after a long day of hard work. Normally, she wouldn't be this tired after a day like this. There weren't a lot of customers today, but Jonathan had been running late due to some personal emergencies, causing her to be responsible for everything most of the day. She had to order their supplies, do their inventory, stock their incoming orders into the basement. They weren't hard tasks, just very tiresome ones and that in combination with the 11-hour shift has worn her out.

"John, can you pass me my bag? I put it in that cupboard," she pointed to one of the many cupboards on the other side of the bar. Jonathan walked over and grabbed her big green bag from it.

"I really don't understand why you ladies need those large bags," he said as he shook his head in disbelief. Elena smiled.

"Did you just call me a lady, John?" She grinned at him.

"I wouldn't dare." He held up both of his hands and then continued to clean the bar. Elena rummaged through her bag and finally found her book, between her keys, a few packages of chewing gum and some receipts. She took another sip of her beer and opened the book at the page where she left off. Soon, she was lost in the story and only heard the hushed sound of the turntable, which was playing softly in the background.

Suddenly, the calmness of the pub was interrupted by the front door opening. Four boys came in stumbling and laughing, almost tripping over the chairs in the dimly lit pub. Elena shot a quick look, but turned her focus to her book again when she noticed John had noticed the boys, too.

"Remus!" one of the boys roared. He had thick, long, black hair, which he casually tossed out of his face. Elena couldn't help but think that he was very good-looking, his grey eyes contrasting his dark hair and eyebrows. "You can order us something!" He slapped one of the other boys on the back, possibly Remus. In comparison to the first boy, "Remus" was a slim boy with light brown hair. He looked rather gangling, but the grin on his face betrayed that he shouldn't be judged on his appearance.

"Sure," he stumbled towards the bar, giving Elena a possibility to observe the others as they tried to find a table in the back of the pub. The old, local man shot up an annoyed look, but quickly averted his eyes from the group of guys and shifted his attention to the newspaper. The boy with black hair had followed one of the others, a tall boy with black hair too, only much messier. He ruffled it, before he sat down, explaining why it looked like that. He wore round glasses and had a smug grin on his face. He said something to the other boys, who erupted into a loud laughter. The last of the three was a small, chubby boy. He had brownish hair and a rather nasty appearance, which surprised Elena, since the other three boys seemed quite well groomed.

Remus stood a few chairs away from Elena as he caught the attention of Jonathan. Not pleased by their late and loud entrance, Jonathan turned around with an annoyed look on his face.

"Good evening," the boy named "Remus" greeted him, giving him a polite smile. "Can I have a round of butterbeers?"

Elena looked up at his question and snorted when she caught sight of the frowned look on Jonathan's face. He had crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked at the boy as if he had gone mental.

"What?" The boy turned to Elena, who smiled at him.

"I'm pretty sure we don't have, butterbeer was it?, here. Just regular, normal beer."

Elena saw a flash of confusion in his eyes, but quickly it changed to understanding. "Oh… Right." He shifted uncomfortably and looked at Jonathan again. "Four _beers_ , please."

Jonathan eyed him suspiciously and Elena noticed that the boy grew more and more uncomfortable under his observing eye.

"Are you even old enough to be here?" Jonathan asked.

"I- Uhm.. We're 18," the boy stammered, shooting his friends an insecure look. The boy with the black, long hair was gesturing something that looked like 'what is taking you so long?'

Jonathan squinted his eyes and also shot a look at the boys in the back.

"Oh, John, I'm sure it's fine." She felt sorry for the boy and it was rather obvious they had been drinking all ready. Plus, after a quiet day every sold drink was welcome.

Jonathan grunted something, not pleased by her interrupting, but still got out four pints and started to draw them their beers. The boy turned to Elena and smiled politely.

"Thank you, we're really 18, though."

Elena chuckled. "I believe you. Still, I'm curious about the butterbeers you just mentioned." She squinted my eyes a little as she observed him. "Where are you from?"

He let out a nervous laugh. "Here, London." Then quickly averted his eyes.

"Well," she started, causing him to meet her eyes again. His eyes had a dark green shade and a mischievous twinkling in them. "I don't know where you get this, 'butterbeer', but it sounds tasty."

"Oh, it is." He grinned again, looking a little more relaxed. "A little sweet. It tastes like Christmas."

"Christmas," Elena repeated, not really sure what taste that could be like. "Well, it sounds great. Maybe we should sell it." She shot him another smile, before Jonathan put the four large pints in front of the boy and shifting her attention back to her book again.

"What are you reading?" The boy asked, trying to catch a glimpse of the cover. Elena teared away her gaze from the book and held it up.

"Romeo and Juliet," she gave him a shy smile. "Every girl needs to read it at least once, I think. Keeps up the romantic standards nowadays."

"Definitely," the boy agreed. "Do you read a lot of Shakespeare?"

"I try to," she admitted. He didn't need to know that every time she began reading his work, she would stop halfway, because the old-English language was starting to drive her crazy.

The boy nodded and held out his hand. "I haven't introduced myself yet and I don't want to be rude. My name is Remus Lupin." From the corner of her eye Elena saw Jonathan shooting Remus another suspicious look. Elena couldn't suppress a grin and shook Remus' hand.

"Elena Smith."

"It's a pleasure to meet you." He took a sip of one of the drinks. "Do you work here?" he asked, while wiping away the foam-mustache.

Elena nodded. "A few years now."

They looked at each other for a moment and Elena couldn't help but notice how beautiful the shade of green of his eyes were. They reminded her of the bushes and leaves of the trees in her front garden. After a moment of staring in each other's eyes, he smiled uncomfortable, but nudged to the drinks. "If you don't mind, could you maybe help me to carry these to our table?"

Elena blinked a few times, a little surprised by his sudden invitation. "Uhm, sure." She closed her book and put it back in her bag. She put her own glass on the other side of the bar, so that Jonathan could clean it up and picked up the two pints Remus had left on the bar.

"What took you so long, Moony?" the boy with the messy black hair asked when Remus put the drinks in front of them. _Moony?_ Elena wondered. Kind of a weird nickname, especially since he said that his name was Remus. Then the boy shot a look over at Elena. "And you even needed help, you're such a sissy, Remus."

"Hey," the boy with black, long hair gave him a little nudge. "Remus asked a pretty girl to bring us drinks, I say nothing is wrong with _that._ " He shot Elena a smile, which must have stolen most of girls' hearts over the past years. Elena smiled back politely, but remained silent.

"My name is Sirius Black," he introduced himself, reaching out his hand and taken hers before she even noticed. "This inconsiderate arsehole next to me is James," he nudged to the boy with messy hair, who was now grinning broadly at her. "This here is Peter," The small, chubbish boy extended his hand, too. She shook it a bit uncomfortable. "And of course, you already met Remus." He shifted his attention to Remus, who was still rather uncomfortable after Sirius shot him a knowing look.

Elena smiled to the boys. "Elena Smith."

"Well, Elena," James started, giving a smile similar to Sirius' "since you came all the way down here; why don't you join us?" With his feet he pushed the empty chair opposite of him away from the table.

"Oh- I," Elena started, but Peter quickly interrupted her.

"We don't bite, and we're not pimps. At least, Remus and I are not. We're the sane ones," he shot her a polite smile and his eyes were pleading so much, she couldn't bear to say no.

"Okay," she said slowly and lowered herself onto the chair. Remus took a seat next to her on the only empty chair left.

"So, Elena," Sirius took over the conversation again. "What do you do?"

"I work at this pub, actually." She shot a look over at Jonathan, who was filling up her pint again. The boys shot each other all a quick look and Elena could've imagined it, but it seemed like James had winked at Remus.

"You do?" Sirius' eyes had lit up. "That's awesome. I would love to work in a pub," he sighed and let his eyes wander around the room. Remus scoffed and rolled his eyes. "No, you like to _be_ in pubs. That's different from working in one, you're not allowed to _drink_ then."

"She's drinking!" he objected as Jonathan put another pint in front of Elena. She shot Jonathan a thankful smile and he lingered a little too long, before returning to the back again.

"Padfoot," _Seriously, what's with all these weird nicknames?_ "you're barely tolerable in a pub as a customer, let alone if you work in one." He glanced over at Elena. "Seriously, your liquor wouldn't be save if you let him work alone."

Peter, next to her, started to snicker. "You would probably get back an hour later, only to find every bottle of whiskey _empty_ and Sirius' sitting with that smug grin of his on one of the bar stools, pretending that he sold it all while he talks with a double tongue."

Elena smiled. "Well working in a pub means that you should be able to hold your liquor," she admitted as she took another sip of her beer. "You're allowed to do some shots, every now and then."

"Seriously?"

"Don't think about it, Sirius," Remus warned, which Sirius only responded to with a head shake.

"So, Elena," James started as he kicked his feet back on another chair near him and folding his hands behind his head. "How's the life of a bartender? Does anything happen around here?"

Elena scoffed and shook her head with a smile. "No, not at all. We've got some local customers and in the weekends some students hang out here, but overall, no it"s not as eventful as you might think."

"That's hard to believe." Sirius shot a look around the room. "It's a _pub_ , whether it's drunk people or weirdos coming in; something must happen around here." His gaze landed on Elena again. "Especially with such a lovely bartender."

Elena was used to nasty, old men hitting on her, but no hot, young guys like Sirius. She felt her cheeks getting hot and quickly averted his gaze.

"Plus, we're in downtown London," Peter added. "They always say that it's _dangerous_ around here… at least, my mum did."

Remus patted him on the back. "Of course she did."

Elena couldn't suppress a smile. "Well, your mum's right. There are some dodgy people around here."

" _Wicked,"_ Sirius eyes twinkled. "Tell us, what kind of persons?"

Elena was a little confused by the curiosity of the guys. Remus had mentioned that he had grown up in London, sure they knew what kind of people walked the streets here? But on the other hand, the neighbourhood was kind of _dodgy_. She didn't even want to work here in the first place, but it was close to her home and Johnathan always made her feel very safe; never letting her walk back by herself.

"Well," she said and frowned a little, digging in her memories. "Only last week, there were some 'dangerous'," she shot a look at Peter, who almost instantly turned red. "people in the pub. They were clothed kind of funny, wearing cloaks… I think they might have came back from a dress-up party or something, but it was probably not a good one. None of them even shot something similar to a smile while they were here."

Her story seemed to have peaked their interest and they all leaned in a little.

"What did they do here, then?" Remus asked.

"I don't know. They were whispering and fell completely silent whenever I came by their table to ask them if they wanted another round."

"Well, that's definitely very odd," James leaned back again.

She smiled at him, then she almost shot up. "Oh, and the _funniest_ thing!"

James and Sirius arched their eyebrows and all of them looked at her like they didn't believe her. Well, she wouldn't too, it was rather a dull story really.

"They were like this, preppy kind of group and when they walked out I heard they called themselves a name. I-I don't remember…" She closed her eyes, digging in her memory. "I think it was meant to seem scary. It was something like...De… Death… Death something."

"Death eaters?"

When she looked up she saw Remus looking at her expectantly. "Yes! How… Do you know those gu-"

But her sentence was interrupted by a jet of right light, just shooting next to her right ear. In reaction she turned around quickly, only to face the other customer, the old man. He seemed angry and he was holding a… a stick? A wooden stick.

Elena frowned, but there was not much time for confusion as another jet of light appeared from next to her. She glanced over at the source and saw Sirius standing besides her, also a stick in his hand. He quickly shoved her back, behind the other boys, causing her to fall down. She scurried back against the wall, looking up at the four boys in front of her. They were all holding sticks in their hands. And it seemed like an eternity before it dawned upon her. Those weren't sticks. They were _wands._

With wide eyes she watched the boys making figures in the air with their wands and jets of light shooting out of them. Everything seemed to be in fast forward and she occasionally heard some of the boys yell a few words that sounded like 'Expilimarmus' and 'Stupiday".

She was holding her breath and Remus suddenly got knocked over. He shot a look at her and quickly jumped up on his feet again. Elena couldn't moved, she watched the four boys shooting beams of light towards the old man, who either blocked, dodged or countered them.

" _Stupify!_ " It was Peter who screamed the word and a jet of light hit the old man right in the chest. He froze and almost in slow motion he fell, stiff as a plank down the floor.

"Nice shot, Wormtail!" Sirius slapped Peter on the back before hurrying after James, who had walked over to the old man.

"Who the hell is it?"

"I don't know. I don't recognize him."

"Do you think it's one of them?" Peter asked, his voice suddenly a lot higher than normal.

"I guess." James hovered over the man and grabbed his wand again. "I'll send an message to Dumbledore." He mumbled something under his breath and out of the tip of his wand, a silvery kind of smoke appeared. Elena squinted her eyes together as formed a shape… it was an animal. And then it was clear what it was; a deer. As soon as it came, it ran off out of the pub.

"Are you alright?" A concerned voice next to Elena asked. She turned and saw Remus observing her from head to toe.

She couldn't find her words. If anything this was a dream, but the man, lying motionless on the ground was no dream. "W-what was that? What happened? Who is he?" she stammered as Remus helped her up on her feet again. The other boys were now looking at her too and she seemed the only one to be confused. Like they did this everyday.

"It's not important." Remus' hand laid on her shoulder and he squeezed it gently. "How are you feeling? Are you hurt?" Elena blinked a few times and looked at her hands, arms and legs. There were a few bruises and a scratch, but other than that there was nothing. She closed her eyes and let out a relieved sigh.

"No- No I'm not hurt. I'm fine. I'm just confused."

"Of course you are," James appeared next to her, shooting her a weak smile. "But don't worry about it, love, we'll clear it up for you." He exchanged a quick look with Remus.

"You know what to do, Moony," Sirius called from the other side. He was hovering over the man, seizing his wand and putting it into his back pocket. "Such a shame, though. She was really nice." he said and turned to Peter.

Elena shot Remus a confused look."Wh-Why? What are you going to do."

Remus shot her a smile, but it didn't meet his eyes. "Don't worry. It'll be fine." At that moment Elena realized that he had seized his wand again and was raising it.

"W-What are you-?"

But before she could finish her sentence Remus murmured "Obliviate" almost under his breath and her mind went blank.


End file.
